Lina was slipping away from him. With each second that passed her grip on his hand grew weaker as her breathing slowed as sweat beaded on her face. Gourry felt as though the world was falling through a tunnel as a sense of surrealness rose. This couldn't be happening! Not when they were so close to help!

Jillas was yelling at Filia to wake up, and even though they were only a few feet away they sounded much farther than that, the cries distorted. That Lina was dying and there was nothing he could do about it was all that consumed him.

"Is she dead?" Zenobia asked, her voice somehow overlapping and merging with Jillas's.

Gourry barely paid her any attention as he silently pleaded with Lina to stay with him for however long it took Filia to wake up. She was strong, surely if someone could do it, Lina could!

"Is she dead?" Zenobia repeated as she raised her voice with the reserves of her energy, fully grabbing Gourry's attention before she trailed off weakly as her lead lolled to the side. "I have an antidote, I just need to know that she's dead first."

Gourry felt a pit form in his stomach. Could someone really be so cold? Was she really going to hold onto the antidote until Lina died? Gourry turned to look at Zenobia and thought that she didn't have long herself. If they could wake Filia up she would likely only have time to save one of them. This time Gourry didn't have to think too hard about his choice. "She's dead." He lied.

"What!?" Jillas exclaimed.

Zenobia reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial and then her arm collapsed by her side as she took a deep, heaving breath, "Give it to the dragon! Hurry! I need a healing spell."

"What makes you think we'll do that?" Jillas asked as he folded his arms and turned his face away.

"Give it to Filia." Gourry said. He was worried that if he left Lina's side to give Filia the antidote that she would slip away. What if he was what was anchoring her there?

"What?" Jillas asked.

"Death is too good for her." Gourry said bitterly. "Do it, quickly!"

Zenobia smiled as Jillas took the vial. Jillas shot Zenobia a dirty look before he turned around and gave it to Filia as Gourry silently pleaded with Lina to stay with him just a little bit longer. He wondered how long it would take for Filia to wake up. It seemed to be taking forever! What if she woke up too late? Lina's breathing was becoming uneven.

Just as he started to despair, Filia started to stir, "W-where am I?"

"You have to hurry and save Lina!" Gourry said as he turned to look and watched as Filia, in human form, sat up and ran a hand through her hair.

"What?" Zenobia exclaimed, her voice little more than a harsh whisper now.

"Huh?" Filia said as she got to her feet and for once seemed unperturbed that her tail was showing.

"She was hurt badly rescuing you." Gourry said as Filia finally seemed to get her bearings and raced to Lina's side as she started chanting.

"You lied!" Zenobia spat.

"Yeah, I guess I did." Gourry said as he kept his eyes on Lina and held her hand. And tried to ignore the sense of guilt that slowly started to creep.

"I don't know how much longer I can hold on!" Zenobia said as her voice cracked with desperation.

Gourry closed his eyes. "I don't know what to tell you. Other than that the reason we're even here is because of you. We'll save you if we can. But we're saving Lina first."

Zenobia's eyes rolled back into her head as she went limp as Filia continued to work on healing Lina. Zenobia let out a death rattle, and then the world became silent, save for Filia's chanting. Jillas came up and sat beside them as they waited for some sign that Lina was recovering.

At last she started to stir, and then her eyes opened. She smiled as she saw Gourry and said, "I'm not gonna lie. I like seeing you so worried about me."

"Try not to talk." Filia instructed, though then she chuckled, "I know that's hard for you, but still, try not to talk."

Lina smiled at her as Gourry squeezed her hand, "I'm so glad you stayed with me."

"It will take more than that to kill me." Lina said as Filia shook her head in exasperation.

"Not even one minute! You can be silent for longer than that!"

"Do I need to time her, boss?" Jillas asked as he pulled a watch from his pants.

"What sort of stakes are you willing to bet?" Lina asked.

Filia sighed, "Fine, forget it. Talk and waste your life energy for all I care!"

But Lina smiled as she closed her eyes, and silence finally fell upon the group again, but this time it was lighter and tinged with relief. Gourry could grapple with his conscience later now that Lina would live. He would have preferred to put Zenobia behind bars, and while he knew Zenobia had sealed her fate, he also had a choice in it. All the same, his guilt would have been infinitely greater if Lina had died instead. Somehow life kept throwing situations his way that didn't follow clear cut rules of right and wrong.

Eventually Filia stopped chanting, and Lina sat up and put her hand over her stomach where she'd been shot. "Wow, that's a lot better. Thanks!"

"Thank you for coming after me." Filia said.

"You have Jillas to thank. He went and tracked us down." Lina said, and Filia patted Jillas's head as he beamed at her.

"Do you think your powers are back?" Gourry asked.

A look of nerves flashed through Lina's face, and when she spoke she put a lot of effort into sounding nonchalant as she said, "That is the question, isn't it?"

"Why don't you try and see?" Filia asked as she walked over to Zenobia and checked for a pulse. She shook her head, and then she turned and considered Jillas, who was covered in fresh burns. "Goodness, you're next."

Filia started to chant again, and Lina looked apologetically as Gourry as she said, "I guess getting your limbs back will have to wait."

He shrugged, "I can wait a little bit longer. I'm more interested in seeing whether or not Filia's spell worked."

Lina's smile faltered a bit, "I guess I am too." And then she closed her eyes for a bit as though she was bracing herself for having her hopes dashed. Then she started chanting for a moment before calling, "Lighting!"

A brilliant orb of light formed between her hands, and Lina turned to look at Gourry as though she didn't quite trust her eyes, "You see it? I did it!"

"I see it!" he echoed as she jumped to her feet and started chanting another spell as relief swept through him. They had done it! Her powers were restored! His choice hadn't left her robbed of her powers forever!

"Fireball!" Lina yelled, and then she hollered in joy as the spell flew through the desert, "Oh I am back in action! Oh, it's been so long since I've released one of those! Damn, what should I do next? Oh I know! Darkness beyond twilight…"

"Do you think we should stop her before she destroys the desert?" Filia asked apprehensively.

"Let her have her fun." Gourry said as he smiled, perfectly content to watch her, "It's been awhile. And she needs to know that she can still do this stuff."

"Dragon Slave!" Lina yelled as the spell roared to life from her hands, and then she turned and ran into Gourry's arms, pretty much knocking him over. He wrapped his arms around her and was fully prepared when she started to kiss him.

"Hey, when did you two start doing that?" Filia cried, and then her eyes widened as they actually started to make out, "Hey! Hey! Get a room!"

"Spoilsport." Lina said as she pulled away and smiled.

"I'm done healing Jillas, so that means that re-growing Mr. Gourry's limbs is next." Filia said as she shook her head.

Lina got off of him and then helped him to sit up as Filia came up to them, and then they shared a smile as Filia started yet another healing spell.

After they had healed Gourry, Lina and Gourry had decided to go to the slums once more to retrieve some items before flying with Filia to Seyruun to see if more people there needed to be healed. They decided to walk back to city. Gourry was enjoying having feet again and they all wanted to fill each other in on what had happened.

Filia started first, and she explained about receiving their letter and meeting Zenobia who had offered her a pie for the journey, which she'd stupidly eaten. The next thing she knew Jillas was waking her up. Lina took over then, and talked about how Jillas had met up with them and the fight with Zenobia. But once she got to the part that she'd blacked out Gourry and Jillas had to take over. Or rather, Jillas took over and explained about how Gourry had tricked Zenobia into giving them the antidote.

Lina nearly stopped in her tracks when she heard this, and she turned and looked at Gourry, "You mean you told Zenobia I was dead when I was alive to get it?"

"Yeah." He said uncomfortably.

Lina squeezed his hand. "I didn't think you had it in you."

"I don't exactly feel good about it." Gourry said. "Especially since Zenobia died."

"That you don't feel good says a lot about you and a lot about her." Lina said, "If she had killed me she wouldn't have given a damn. She would have moved onto Granya or a new target."

Yet while part of Lina was glad that Gourry had managed to outplay Zenobia, she had to admit, there was a part of her that was sad that he'd had to do it. While his nobility and goody nature were frustrating at times, she couldn't deny that she also found them attractive. Still, as far as Lina was concerned, they were better off not having to worry about Zenobia anymore.

"Well," Lina said as she changed the subject as they entered the slums, "Now that we don't have to put down another month's rent and have the money we both earned, how about after we grab our stuff we go and get a good meal before we fly off to Seyruun?"

"Sounds perfect!" Gourry said.

"I am hungry myself." Jillas said as they reached their building.

"Great," Lina said, "Filia, Jillas, you can stay here. There's not much there so we won't be too long."

"Right," Filia said as she surveyed the place suspiciously as Lina and Gourry started to climb the stairs.

Aja stuck her head out as they walked past her room and her jaw about dropped as she saw that Gourry had his limbs back. Lina smiled as she squeezed Gourry's arm, "Bet you wish you were nicer now."

Aja blushed as Gourry added, "Who would have thought I didn't need my limbs to rescue a dragon?"

Aja slammed the door shut as Lina tsked, "All she cares about is how things look on the surface."

"Yeah," Gourry said, "We're people of summits!"

"Summits?" Lina repeated, "Oh, I think you mean substance!"

"Exactly!" Gourry said, "We're people of substance! We didn't give up on each other."

They reached their room, and Lina took a moment to hug him before she turned around and undid the lock, "Oh, I will not miss this place!"

"I dunno." Gourry said as he looked fondly at the broken bed, "I still kinda want to give tearing this building down one last shot."

"Who said we can't still demolish a building?" Lina asked as she gathered her stuff, "We will stay in plenty of fleabag inns, I assume. Unless this brush with domesticity has left you with wanting more."

"No," he said, "I think we should have more adventures first. But hey," he said as he came up and wrapped his arms around her, "Isn't it good to know that if we had to, we could have made it, with no magic and no limbs, together?"

Lina jumped up a little to kiss him as he caught her and held her close, "It is."

AN: Thank you for reading!